Twitter unveils video ads

SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter on Tuesday unveiled a new advertising programme that delivers "promoted videos" to the tweet stream of users of the popular messaging platform.

The new programme adds to the source of advertising revenue for Twitter, which has struggled to convince investors it is on a path to profitability.

"By using Promoted Video, it's easy for brands to upload and distribute video on Twitter, and to measure the reach and effectiveness of this content," product manager David Regan said in a blog post.

Regan said test launch came "after months of experiments and feedback from users and brands." He said that to make it easier for advertisers, Twitter will offer a "cost per view" model: "This means advertisers only get charged when a users starts playing the video," he said.

"Additionally, advertisers using Promoted Video have access to robust video analytics," such as how many people view the entire video, he said.

Twitter accounted for 0.5 per cent of global digital ad revenues in 2013, according to research firm eMarketer, and expects to increase that to 0.8 per cent this year, as digital ad spending grows to US$140.15 billion (S$175.25 billion).

Twitter said last month that the number of monthly active users of the platform has hit 271 million, up 24 per cent when compared with the same period a year earlier.